Rachel weeping for her children

28 DECEMBER (Mt 2,13-18)

The cruelty of man is the result of his foolishness. Foolishness is the fruit of idolatry. Idolatry is the result of the abandonment of the true God and Lord. The evils that idolatry produces are countless, endless and even of unheard gravity. Idolatry comes also to overcome the same limits of evil. It comes to destroy human nature itself.

Then it was not enough for them to err in their knowledge of God; but even though they live in a great war of ignorance, they call such evils peace. For while they celebrate either child-slaying sacrifices or clandestine mysteries, or frenzied carousals in unheard-of rites, They no longer safeguard either lives or pure wedlock; but each either waylays and kills his neighbor, or aggrieves him by adultery. And all is confusion-blood and murder, theft and guile, corruption, faithlessness, turmoil, perjury, Disturbance of good men, neglect of gratitude, besmirching of souls, unnatural lust, disorder in marriage, adultery and shamelessness. For the worship of infamous idols is the reason and source and extremity of all evil. For they either go mad with enjoyment, or prophesy lies, or live lawlessly or lightly forswear themselves. For as their trust is in soulless idols, they expect no harm when they have sworn falsely. But on both counts shall justice overtake them: because they thought ill of God and devoted themselves to idols, and because they deliberately swore false oaths, despising piety. For not the might of those that are sworn by but the retribution of sinners ever follows upon the transgression of the wicked (Wis 14,22-31).

Yesterday, the idolatry of Herod made all of Bethlehem cry, due to the killing of all their children two years old and under. Today, idolatry is killing our world. As if this were not enough, it is killing human nature itself, as it is destroying it in its basic, fundamental distinction of man and woman. In addition, since idolatry is the result of human folly, the foolish and idolatrous man thinks the fruits of the death of his idolatry can be stopped with laws and decrees. By law and by decree you cannot tell a poisonous snake not to bite any more. By law and by decree you cannot prohibit an idolater not to kill, destroy and annihilate. The idolater will always produce death poison. No human law might ever prohibit him it. His nature is what produces it, not his own will. His nature is, by now, perverted and he cannot but act as an idolater, as a foolish and an ignorant person.

When they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, 7 and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi. Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet: “A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.”

Herod is the historical, overt and obvious attestation of cruelty of the one that becomes foolish and ignorant. His only fruit is idolatry. Idolatry always produces fruits of death: first spiritual and then physical as well. Today, idolatry is the law of our society. God is declared useless and vain. What is the fruit of such a statement? Man himself became a vanity, futility and uselessness . His life is declared useless by all those who let themselves be conquered by the foolishness that necessarily will lead to idolatry. If our society wants to find the meaning of life, must necessarily return to the sources of true wisdom which is the Word of God. It must return to the sources of grace which are the sacraments. Gospel and grace, Word and life, recompose man; and the recomposed man instantly becomes the cultivator of true life. He is in life and always produces and generates life. The idolater is in death and nothing can he generate and produce if not death. This truth must be shouted today with force. Either man returns to the source of true life and true wisdom, or his future will be more and more sad. It will be a bitter, very sad and very bitter future, because of idolatry that increases every day.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us true worshipers of God.